Software Design Accountability

Where did accountability go?

I thought computers would help with accuracy, accountability, and information
access. These are the terms that should be the basis of every application.
I guess I was wrong. All I see is far less of these things than I ever expected.

I bid on a job a few year back, and tried to bring up the accountability
aspect of the data collection task. It was like I had stepped on someone's
grave. My first responsibility is to the "Company" when I write software, will
it make money, and what are the legal ramifications.

"Ignorance is bliss" if you keep information, it could or will get you in
trouble with any court action. You must be careful. There is a fine line that a
company must walk, save two million or loss two billion. A friend of mine lost
his job for showing some company information to visitors, who turned out to be
lawyers. This is one aspect of information keeping, accountability is another.

Accountability directly affects the assumptions that employees make on the
information that a company supplies. I find this to be far more likely to
hurt the company than anything else, in wasted time, in lost sales, and in bad
business decisions. I place lack of information in this category. The computer's
primary job is to provide information. Therefore good, bad, or non-existent
information determines how well a company runs. Without some sort of validation,
a scale, in which to judge information, there can be no improvement. The best
validation tool that I found, for the accuracy of information, is to look at how
many meetings each person attends. The perfect system is where everyone
stays in their own chairs.